google

Google Referral

July 2010

Google Search

March 05, 2009

With the iPhone's 3.0 software release in June, Apple will make a major stride towards filling the business user experience and manageability gap, especially when it comes to Exchange ActiveSync. With the economic downturn in full force, companies are cutting perks like smartphones. This means that more and more employees are bringing their own to work. They are usually purchasing the iPhone for the mixed consumer and business functionality. They want access to corporate email. IT departments have tried to stem the flow of iPhones into their organization, claiming lack of business functionality and security. This is a losing battle and CIOs are starting to admit it.

At a question-and-answer session at Microsoft's Public Sector CIO Summit in Redmond, Chris Kemp, the CIO at NASA's Ames Research Center asked Steve Ballmer; "With platforms like the Google phone and iPhone coming out, it's really tough to continue to stand behind Windows Mobile when our employees are bringing these consumer devices into our environments. And in your presentation you put Windows Mobile right in the center there, but it was a phone that doesn't work in America and an operating system that you haven't released. I'm wondering what your commitment is to continuing to get newer versions of the operating system in our hands so that we don't have to fight this battle on the ground."

Ballmer's answer; "We have a significant release coming this year. Not the full release we wanted to have this year but we have a significant release coming this year with Windows Mobile 6.5. I think that would look a lot like the phone that I showed that was in the slide, but very good catch, very impressed. (Laughter.) He was right on both scores, very good. But I think with Windows Mobile 6.5, there will be phones in market this year. We still don't get some of the things that people want on the highest-end phones. Those will come on Windows Mobile 7 next year. Certainly I'm not, um -- there's opportunities for us to accelerate our execution in this area, and we've done a lot of work to really make sure we have a team that's going to be able to accelerate. With that said, we did sell more Windows Mobile devices last year than Apple did iPhones -- just an important factoid to have. Blackberry was a little bit ahead, and Google was nowhere to be seen, except in Silicon Valley, I'm sure. But we'll do our best to help you with that challenge."

His comment regarding how Microsoft does not get the things that people want on the highest end phones, is pretty sad but true. Apple seems to get it and as every iPhone software release closes in on the email and business functionality provided by Windows Mobile, where does that leave Windows Mobile? Not in a very good position, all I can say is that Microsoft better hit it out of the ballpark with Windows Mobile 7 to stay competitive with the iPhone.

February 13, 2009

We all know that Windows Mobile is the most mature and full featured Smartphone operating system, however that maturity has also meant that it is missing some of the newer user interface (UI) paradigms such as multi touch and enhanced mobile browsers like Safari. Microsoft has currently left the implementation of such new technologies to its hardware partners such as Samsung, who has brought a widget-based interface to the Omnia on Verizon. Let's see how well Verizon and Samsung have addressed the competitive landscape! Read my review at pocketnow.com.

January 08, 2009

One of the top 5 gadgets I use is a Sling Media Slingbox Pro. I can stream content from my Directv DVR from just about anywhere in the world. I have been using SlingPlayer Mobile for quite some time now on Windows Mobile and I have been patiently waiting for the iPhone version which has been in development since last year's announcement of the iPhone SDK. The wait is coming to an end, Sling Media has officially announced that they will be submitting the SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone to the App Store in March. This will a great addition to my iPhone...Here is Macworld 09 demo by theiPhoneBlog team.

The official Sling Media iPhone page also has some interesting information. You can sign up for an email alert to notify you when the SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone is available in the App Store. I think this is going to be big and bring a whole new set of customers to Sling Media.

December 24, 2008

"Sling Media, Inc., just released a new version of SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile. The new version of SlingPlayer Mobile provides support for 15 new Windows Mobile handsets including the Sony Ericsson X1, the Palm Treo Pro and the HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro among others.

SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile

The following is a list of newly supported Windows Mobile handsets now supported in this SlingPlayer Mobile release. For more information on these and other supported devices, go to http://www.slingmedia.com/go/pocket-pc

oSprint Treo 800w

oSony Ericsson X1

oPalm Treo Pro

oSprint HTC Touch Diamond

oSprint HTC Touch Pro

oVerizon HTC Touch Pro

oVerizon Samsung Saga

oVerizon Samsung Omnia

oAT&T LG Incite

oAT&T HTC Fuze

oAT&T Samsung Epix

oHP iPAQ 910

oAT&T Pantech Duo

oSprint Samsung ACE

oVerizon XV6900

SlingPlayer Mobile gives consumers their entire home TV experience, including local channels, local sports teams, video on demand, pay per view, etc. Any program that you can watch on your sofa back home, you can now watch via a PC, Mac or Windows Mobile-based device anywhere you can get a standard network connection (3G Cellular or WiFi). In addition, SlingPlayer Mobile users can also control their home digital video recorder (DVR) to watch recorded shows, pause, rewind and fast forward live TV, or even queue new recordings while on the road."

I just tried it on my Verizon Samsung i760 Windows Mobile 6.1 device and I have to say this is the best SlingPlayer Mobile to date. On Verizon's EVDO network the landscape full screen mode the video was excellent with very little pixelation and no lag time. Maybe some day soon we will see the iPhone version...

December 22, 2008

In the late 1980s, Microsoft started developing an application for e-mail which became Exchange Server. Exchange Server is the most widely used corporate e-mail server in use today and the Gartner Group estimates that Exchange Server will attain a 70% market share by 2010.

I use Microsoft Exchange for my e-mail on the iPhone and Windows Mobile. It is one of the critical applications for businesses today, but how can you leverage the power for the individual. Here is a brief overview I wrote for pocketnow.com.

December 15, 2008

In another apparent psychological blow to the Windows Mobile, after licensing Exchange ActiveSync to Apple, Microsoft is now an official App Store vendor. On Friday Apple released a Microsoft Live Labs application called Seadragon which allows you to:

View thousands of images over the air

Quickly view massive gigapixel images

Explore Photosynth collections in 2D, including your own

Add your own PhotoZoom / Deep Zoom Composer content

Subscribe to Deep Zoom RSS feeds

This a slick , very smooth application with very little lag time. It puts Google Earth pan and zoom functions to shame and showcases what can be done with an iPhone.

Map of Santo Domingo from the Library of Congress.

No word from Microsoft Live Labs if they plan a Windows Mobile release! Is this another slap in the face to the Windows Mobile team?

December 04, 2008

According to a post on Gizmodo, a G1 user traveling to the UK incured over $100 worth of data roaming charges while never using the device to access data. Apparently the G1 sends some type of heartbeat every 3 - 5 minutes regardless of your location. Could this be push email or just some OS feature that requires the G1 to call home. It is unbelievable that someone would design such a feature without an on/off switch. The on/off feature has been there since day one in Windows Mobile devices. In version 1 of the iPhone firmware there was some confusion about how to turn off data roaming but at least the feature was there, for the G1 the T-Mobile CSR response was to leave the device at home.

I have been a T-Mobile fan from the Voicestream days but over the 18 months their lack of any decent devices has left me less than enthusiastic, even if their pricing model is generally cheaper. I don't think the G1 is very innovative compared to the iPhone, the [email protected] feature which I think is a key differentiator and a big cost saving was left out of new phones like the G1. I am sure the data roaming issue will fixed in a future update but somebody really missed the boat on this one.

October 27, 2008

Last week the Hill newspaper (via arstechnica) reported that "iPhones are a must-have for Congress". According to the Hill "The Chief Administrative Office (CAO), which oversees the communications systems for the House, has begun testing a small number of iPhones within its ranks to see if they are compatible with the working needs of lawmakers and staff.". The article goes on to say that their email system is currently not compatible with the iPhone because they use the Blackberry Enterprise server, but that is incorrect.

The House and Senate use Microsoft's Exchange server as their main internal email system. With version 2.x of the iPhone's firmware you are able to connect to the Microsoft Exchange server directly. There is no need for Blackberry's convoluted architecture (it was innovative in the 90's, but now seems archaic) which requires messages to be funneled to/from Exchange via Blackberry's Enterprise Server then to RIM's Network Operation Center (NOC) in Waterloo, Canada and finally transmitted to/from the cellular network. With the iPhone and Exchange everything happens over a secure SSL Internet connection directly to the House or Senate's Exchange server (Windows Mobile devices work the same way). There is no intermediary server or NOC required.

As pointed by the Hill, the major issue with the iPhone is whether the available functionality provides what congress needs. The lack of some key Exchange ActiveSync functionality like email search, and creating appointment invitations may hamper its adoption, but I understand the move is on by many staffers on the Senate side to switch to the iPhone even though they are paying for the devices themselves and have to sign a document stating that they will not receive any support. It is now up to Apple to ramp up its Exchange ActiveSync functionality and make it harder for congress' IT organizations to stem the trend towards the iPhone.

October 22, 2008

The Microsoft Exchange group understood the power of the iPhone when they licensed Exchange ActiveSync to Apple. Last night Apple reported sales of 6.9 million iPhones in the last quarter. According to Steve Jobs, this outpaced sales RIM's Blackberry sales for the quarter. Since every iPhone is shipped with Exchange ActiveSync they are capable of connecting with Exchange Server, however for now I am sure there is only a small percentage of iPhone users like myself which connect to Exchange. This is mainly due to corporate IT blocking the iPhone and the lack of marketing of Hosted Exchange Services for individuals and small businesses. Apple also chose to implement the minimum functionality for Exchange ActiveSync to work, but they have a dedicated team working on adding key features like the ability to create invites to calendar appointments and synchronizing tasks.

As of today Apple says that they have sold more than 10 million iPhones this year. At this point I am not sure how the Blackberry and Windows Mobile fend off Apple's attack. Today is also when T-Mobile's Android based G1 goes on sale in retail stores, I will be curious to see if any lines are forming... There are reports of 1.5 million units pre-orders, I seriously doubt it, but that does not rule out the G1 being a success for T-Mobile and according to reviews it is somewhat a worthy competitor to the iPhone. I think the iPhone needs a competitor to keep Apple on its toes, unfortunately I think the G1 is the closest one we have. The HTC Touch Diamond/Pro/HD, the Samsung Omnia and Sony/Ericsson X1 are all very good attempts at making Windows Mobile more of a touch environment but they are hobbled by what is now considered an archaic user interface paradigm. I am sure some will differ and praise the paradigm as more efficient, but that does not mean it is user friendly or intuitive. I think it is clear that the overall marketplace has decided that touch is better than using a stylus. The lessons of the current marketplace is probably why Microsoft has chosen to delay the launch of Windows Mobile 7. They have a lot of work to do...

To paraphrase Mark Twain, I think that reports of Windows Mobile and Blackberry's death have been greatly exagerated. The smartphone's marketplace is huge, Windows Mobile and Blackberry both currently have a lock on corporate smartphone use, and Apple has a ways to go to meet corporate functionality needs. But with Apple current quarterly results the marketplace has spoken and even though it is the consumer who has chosen the iPhone hands down, Windows Mobile and Blackberry need to step up or in the long run they could become a casualty.

I think the good news for Windows Mobile is the appointment Terry Myerson as corporate vice president of the mobile communications product group. Myerson oversaw the successful re engineering of the Exchange platform into Exchange 2007. Hopefully he can make Windows Mobile 7 a success, until then I am sticking with the iPhone.

September 25, 2008

T-Mobile has finally provided details on the G1, they have published a pretty good web site which contains links to most first hand account of the device. It is being called a real competitor to the iPhone but from the press conference T-Mobile is only targeting consumers with this device. The consumer is T-Mobile's USA bread and butter. Over the years they have done an excellent job at providing great value with MyFaves and [email protected] (BTW I did not see either of these features on the G1), their top selling smartphones have been the SideKick and the Blackberry curve. In contrast to T-Mobile in Europe, the USA subsidiary has not provided any advanced Windows Mobile device and unfortunately in its current form the G1 does not currently offer very much for the business user. The Android OS does provide the means for software development and distribution which could fill the gaps making the G1 a business device. However, it seems that T-Mobile and Google are waiting for third parties to fill this gap. In response to the lack of Exchange ActiveSync at the press conference the answer was that this would be a good application for third parties to implement, but will developer's flock to Android the way they did to the iPhone. From my unscientific research it does not look like it, the marketplace is still too iffy at this point. Compared to the millions of iPhones being sold, the analysts have estimated G1 sales to only be in the hundreds of thousands.

The "open" mantra being touted by Google could be a free for all and could lead to very different user experiences by device and by carrier thus diluting the Android brand name. Developers are also concerned that each carrier could have its own app store which could be a real headache when dealing with applications suited for the international marketplace. Even though there are still issues to be ironed out with the Apple app store, the advantage of having a single marketplace for users and developers is a major plus.

There seems to have a ground swell of protests against the 1GB cap (the AT&T cap is 5GB) then reducing throughput language in the contract which T-Mobile has relented on yesterday. I find this topic quite interesting since most of my data usage comes from WIFI and currently my iPhone 3G usage is about 100MB per billing cycle. I agree with the protests, however on the other side of the coin I don't want individuals hogging bandwidth to my detrement. Tethering will also not be allowed, it is clear that the voice market is saturated and the carriers look at data for revenue growth. They want you to pay extra for tethering because data usage on a PC is far greater, but at an average of $60 per month, I find this to be somewhat predatory.

T-Mobile appears to be willing to SIM unlock the devices after 90 days for account in good standing. AT&T should take a lesson, although they have no incentive to so...

At this point, given the very small T-Mobile 3G foot print (I don't even see Washington, DC in the current list) this phone is no threat to Apple, but from an overall marketplace I see the G1 as good competition which will hopefully help keep Apple on its toes and may force some loosening by the control freaks in Cupertino. Yes, I do believe that control gives Apple an edge in providing a uniform user experience, the issue is how much control.

In the end the G1 looks like a pretty good consumer device with excellent technology compared to a Sidekick or Blackberry and even the iPhone. We will have to see how the marketplace reacts since technology alone won't guaranty that it is a hit. As I mentioned before it is about the eco system and on that front, even if they are far from perfect, Apple wins.